Accounting

The major in Accounting will give you competence in financial accounting, non-financial accounting, analysis, valuation, internal control, auditing, tax, and corporate law.

It is widely acknowledged that accounting is the language of business. The Accounting major provides you with knowledge and skills to master this language you need for understanding business.

Accounting will be very suitable for those who would like to work in an accounting department, become a Chief Accounting Officer or a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), or become an internal or external auditor. Moreover, the major is also suitable for a wide range of jobs using or analyzing financial reports, such as analysts, controllers, investigators of economic crime, supervisory authorities etc. The major in Accounting will give you a good understanding of how you should make, read and analyze a financial report and related information. Moreover, you will learn the important role of internal control in ensuring high quality of the companies’ reporting.

Accounting offers a wide and exiting range of courses within four different subject areas:

  1. Reporting
  2. Valuation and analysis
  3. Internal control and auditing
  4. Tax and corporate law

The courses combine theory and practical, real life cases, which provides you with a solid basis for meeting the needs of future employers.

Watch the video below to hear KPMG CEO Lars Inge Pettersen's experience and advice.

  • Subject areas

    Subject areas

    Accounting offers courses within four subject areas that a Chief of Accounting, a CFO, or an auditor normally work with. You may choose to specialize in one area by picking all elective courses from this area, or you may choose a broad competence by picking courses from several areas.

    Reporting

    Financial reporting is about the preparation and reading of financial reports that are prepared for external communication. The reporting shall present the financial performance and economic health of a business. For the readers, it is essential to be able to conduct proper financial reporting analyses, whether they are investors, creditors, or other users that use financial information for economic decisions or to evaluate management of the business.

    In many jurisdictions, financial reporting is regulated in Accounting Laws and Accounting Standards. These laws and standards are based on concepts that are important to understand both when preparing and when reading financial reports. Moreover, the laws and standards leave much judgment to the preparer of the financial report. Good reporting requires good judgment.

    For financial reporting, the Accounting major pays most attention to the international accounting standards, IFRS, which are mandatory for listed companies and increasingly important for private companies. The major also pays attention to nonprofit and governmental entities’ significant role in our society, and their reporting needs that may be different from the needs of private companies.

    Companies have corporate social responsibility (CSR), and report to their stakeholders and society how they perform. This reporting has developed significantly in the last years, and students will learn how to report on CSR and evaluate how firms are performing.

    Internal control and audit

    Internal control and audit is about processes that increase confidence in financial reports and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. It takes an internal perspective by discussing how internal control routines can ensure high quality in an entity’s reporting and reduce risk for fraud and mistakes. It also takes an external perspective by teaching students how to conduct an audit of financial reports, including how to assess the quality of risk management and internal control procedures.

    Tax and corporate law

    In this subject area, students will learn about laws that are essential for organizing businesses and operating internationally. You will learn corporate laws – with focus on Norwegian laws, including topics such as how to form a limited company, do stock issues, do mergers and demergers, etc. You will learn how taxes and tax planning are important for business, both the importance of tax compliance and the magnitude of tax as an expense for the company. Hence, you will learn both national and international corporate tax rules, and tax planning in an ethical context.

    Valuation and analysis

    Valuation is about the valuation of companies and shares, and of assets and liabilities in a company. Valuation is important both for investing decisions and for measuring assets and liabilities in the financial reports. Much valuation is based on judgmental assumptions, and it is important both for the preparer and for the receiver of valuations to understand the effect of judgment in the valuations.

  • Structure and recommended tracks

    Structure and recommended tracks

    The Accounting major consists of 45 ECTS courses and 30 ECTS for a master thesis. The general structure of the coursework is as follows:

    • Two mandatory courses
    • One empirical methods course
    • Three elective courses that can either be chosen within one track, or chosen among all the listed electives

    The topic of the master thesis should be within the scope of the subject areas of Accounting. We recommend students to write the master thesis in the fourth semester.

    ACCOUNTING MAJOR

    One of:

    • ACC401E Financial Accounting I
    • ACC401N Financial Accounting I (N)

    One of:

    • ACC402E Internal Control and Audit
    • ACC402N Internal Control and Audit (N)

    Empirical Methods - Minimum One:

    • BUS444E Econometrics for Business Research
    • BUS444N Econometrics for Business Research (N)
    • ECN402 Econometrics
    • STR402A Methodology for Master Thesis (N/E)

    Reporting - Electives:

    • ACC410 Financial Accounting II (N)
    • ACC411 Accounting and Budgeting in Governmental Organizations (N)
    • ACC412 Nonprofit Accounting
    • ACC413 Sustainability & ESG Reporting

    Internal Control and Audit - Electives:

    • BUS452 Corruption - Incentives, Disclosure and Liability
    • BUS465 Detecting Corporate Crime

    Tax and Corporate Law - Electives:

    • ACC440 Business Law (N)
    • ACC441 Tax Law and Vat (N)
    • FIE432 Private Finance (N)
    • FIE432E Personal Finance and Taxation
    • FIE441 Taxes and Business Strategy

    Valuation and Analysis - Electives:

    • ACC420E Strategic Financial Statement Analysis
    • ACC420N Financial Statement Analysis (N)
    • ACC421A Valuation (N)
    • ACC421B Valuation (N)
    • ACC421E Valuation with Financial Statement Analysis
    • ACC422 Valuation Issues in the Financial Statements (N)
    • FIE437 Valuation

    Master's Thesis:

    • ACCTHE Independent work/thesis in Accounting
  • Learning outcomes

    Learning outcomes

    Knowledge:

    • Have extensive and updated knowledge of relevant theories for accounting
    • Have solid competence in empirical methods for accounting
    • Have good insight into international frameworks for accounting

    Skills:

    • Be able to work independently on advanced issues in accounting
    • Be able to apply relevant theories, methods, and relevant regulations to real-world issues in accounting
    • Be able to update skills and apply new knowledge on their own throughout their career

    General competence:

    • Have the ability to communicate with specialists, as well as a wider audience, about accounting issues
    • Have a solid basis for operating professionally in an international setting
    • Have the ability to consider ethical and sustainability issues in accounting
  • Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability (ERS)

    Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability (ERS)

    You are required to take at least 7.5 ECTS in Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability (ERS). You can choose any course from NHH’s list of ERS courses. You can choose whether to fulfill the ERS requirement within your major, or as part of your minor, or as one of your elective courses. None of the ERS courses are included in the ACC major, and you will need to fulfill this requirement as one of your elective courses or as part of a minor.

    READ MORE ABOUT ERS COURSES

  • International opportunities

    International opportunities

    As an NHH student you have excellent opportunities to gain valuable international experience during your studies through semester exchange, the Double Degree program, CEMS, Engage.EU, Intern Abroad, and summer courses.

    With the Strategy and Management profile, many of our students work abroad and are internationally recruited.

    Read more about international opportunities

  • Sustainability

    Sustainability

    Within the field of sustainability, the Accounting major focuses on sustainability reporting. In the coming years, an increased number of companies will produce sustainability reports, and many of these reports need to be audited. The Accounting major addresses these needs for competence within sustainability reporting by offering a separate course on sustainability reporting (ACC413), and by integrating separate lectures on the audit of such reports in the course on internal control and audit (ACC402N). Moreover, sustainability issues influence most of the subject areas in Accounting and are increasingly being integrated into many of our other courses.

  • Career

    Career

    By taking Accounting, you will be well prepared for a wide range of jobs. In jobs as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Accounting Officer, your competence will be highly appreciated, not only in ensuring corporate reporting of high quality but also in ensuring efficient routines for operating the company. Your competence will also be crucial in jobs where you analyze other companies' performance. Therefore, your competence is highly useful if you plan to work in an investment company, in a bank, as an auditor, in supervisory bodies, or if you want to be an investor yourself.

  • Minor

    Minor

    Courses in Accounting Minor

    To take Accounting (ACC) as a minor, you need 22.5 ECTS from the profile’s portfolio of courses.

    Minimum One:

    • ACC401E Financial Accounting I 7.5 stp Autumn
    • ACC401N Financial Accounting I (N) 7.5 stp Autumn
    • ACC402E Internal Control and Audit 7.5 stp Autumn
    • ACC402N Internal Control and Audit (N/E) 7.5 stp Autumn

    Electives:

    • ACC410 Financial Accounting II 7.5 stp Spring
    • ACC411 Accounting and Budgeting in Governmental Organizations 7.5 stp Spring
    • ACC412 Nonprofit Accounting 7.5 stp Autumn
    • ACC413 Sustainability & ESG Reporting 7.5 stp Spring
    • ACC420E Strategic Financial Statement Analysis 7.5 stp Autumn
    • ACC420N Financial Statement Analysis 7.5 stp Spring
    • ACC421A Valuation 7.5 stp Spring
    • ACC421B Valuation 7.5 stp Autumn
    • ACC421E Valuation with financial statement analysis 7,5 stp Spring
    • ACC422 Valuation Issues in the Financial Statements (N) 7,5 stp Spring
    • ACC440 Business Law (N) 7,5 stp Autumn
    • ACC441 Tax Law and Vat (N) 7,5 stp Autumn